Scenes make up stories. They are the building blocks that form narrative. As writers, we stack scenes together to tell a particular tale. How we write, build, and stack those scenes matters.
Scenes have two main jobs:
1. To move the story forward, and
2. Reveal something about the characters
Scenes may do other things, such as establish setting or theme, but their main purpose remains moving the story and revealing character. The only time this is not true is when the scene’s purpose is to show time passing, which would be done through exposition instead of a story-driven scene.
How do you incorporate the two main jobs into your scenes?
You begin by asking some questions. These questions apply to any story you are telling, whether fiction or nonfiction.
Writing is a process of asking questions. What if this happened? What would that look like? Who would do that? How would that person respond? How would that affect my protagonist’s goal? And so on. The questions are endless, but that is the point. The questions lead to answers that inform story and plot.
Questions for Building Scenes:
Who Is the Scene About?
This question is the key to establishing character. Who are you writing about in this particular scene? What is their motivation and throughline? What does the reader/audience need to know about this person?
Try to keep in mind that every character, no matter how big or small, thinks they are the main character. The villain believes he is the hero. Every side character has something to accomplish that they believe is important or that is important to the main character or story. If that is not the case and the side character doesn’t have a reason to be on the page, remove them from the story.
What Do They Want?
What is driving this person to do whatever it is they are doing in this scene? Why do they make the choices they do? This comes down to desire. What they want drives everything. What is it they want in this scene? How does that fit in with what they want overall? And with what has come before? Does what they want clash with what other characters in the scene want? How so. Answer these questions from all perspectives for a stronger scene.
What Are They Doing About It?
What steps are they taking to achieve their goal? What, in this scene, are they doing to get closer to what they want? How is this scene moving them toward their goal or away from it? Why did they choose to do what they are doing in this scene? Did it help or hurt them?
Why Can’t They Get What They Want?
What or who is standing in their way? What obstacle is keeping them from moving forward? What are they going to do to get around those obstacles?
Why Doesn’t That Work?
Why are they still struggling to get what they want? Even if they did the right thing, why have they not achieved their goal yet? Did they have a setback because of another character or external conflict? Is their misbelief holding them back? Are they getting in their own way? Or is their journey still ahead of them? Are they in the middle and this scene is just one more obstacle to push through?
Most often the thing that keeps characters from doing what they want is fear. They are afraid of something they need to succeed. What is your character’s internal conflict? What fear is holding them back? What obstacles are in their way? What misbelief do they have that prevents them from seeing the best path to their goal? There will be external obstacles, but those will never be as powerful as internal conflict—the clash between desire and fear. What drives that clash in your character?
How Does It End?
Do they succeed in this scene and get one step closer to their goal or do they fail? Where does that leave them? Do they have to come up with a new plan or did they find a new path along the way that will get them where they want to go? How does this scene ending affect where they go next? Does it reveal a new side to the character or does it expose a weakness?
Think of each scene as a building block in the overall story. They are linked, like Legos, and need to both follow what comes before and push forward to what comes next. How is this ending doing that?
Scenes Need Purpose
Each scene needs a purpose—a goal to achieve in the story. The scene’s purpose may be as simple as revealing a character trait the reader needs to understand to empathize with their struggles. Or it may be a complicated twist in an action sequence that leaves the character with few options and resources, putting their character on the line. Whatever the purpose, you must have one. Each scene needs to logically and inevitably lead to the next scene. Without that, your plot will meander and leave your readers bored.
The questions above work great for individual scenes and for the plot overall. Evaluate each step of the process to make sure it is pushing the story forward and revealing your characters for who they are so the reader understands what they want, what fears are holding them back, and why their own misbeliefs about their world are getting in the way.
Stories are quests. They are built with questions. Eventually the questions will be answered and the quest will end. Keep asking questions until that end for a stronger story and stronger scenes.